Hi everyone, today I have this altered book project with you to share! I found this free book in one of the book closets in my neighbourhood and I knew I had to have it and create a journal from it. When you choose a book to make an art journal from you better make sure that the signatures of the book are bound and not glued in, this will make the book so much sturdier. I don’t know how old this book is but the pages feel slightly textured, like watercolour paper, and the cover is made out of card board or something like that as well, it’s sturdy and it took the gesso really easy!
Step 1:
This is what the book looked like outside and inside, most of the pages are filled with Greek text, but some have really large images on them and some have some small faces and other small images on them (I think this is a history book of some kind).
Step 2:
I started by taking some of the pages out of the book. The book is fairly thick and by taking out some of the pages the books thins slightly, which makes adding stuff to it later on easier. You don’t start with a very bulky book before you even art journalled in it!
Step 3:
Next I adhered the pages with the very large images together using gel medium and a brush.
Step 4:
I tore pieces of the pages I took out and adhered them over the faces that are in the book. You can use your hands for this or a ruler to create not so straight edges. I let the ripped edges stick out a little bit here and there, just because I totally love how this looks on the finished project!
Step 5:
Now that the large images and the faces are gone I focussed on getting rid of most of the smaller other images: here I created pockets. Tear the previous page in half using a ruler and adhere the ripped out part on top of the bottom part with the torn edge sticking out (again to create a fun textured look).
I adhere the pocket to the book using score tape and than sew over it using needle and thread, leaving bits of the thread sticking out as well. To create the tags I used a template by Dutch Doobadoo (470.713.173): I adhered two torn out pages together using gel medium, traced the template on the combined pages using a graphite pencil and cut the shape with my scissors.
Now I’m mainly left with pages with text on them, I think one or two of the tiny images remained (I just covered up anything that didn’t speak to me).
Step 6:
Time to work on my cover and make it pretty: I added one to two layers of white gesso on the cover and let it dry. When dry I covered the front of the book with matte gel medium and placed this gorgeous rice paper by Stamperia on the cover, slightly rubbing with my fingers when there where folds or bubbles, and than I covered up the whole front with gel medium again to seal it.
After this dried I used a small brush and water to create a torn edge on the rice paper and folded what was left inwards and adhered there with some more gel medium.
Lastly I covered the back with some Craft Consortium Decoupage Paper that fitted the colours of the front perfectly.
Detail pictures:
And that is it for today altered book project, I wish you a creative day!
